Bits & Pieces

Piece

15th November, 2008

Rohit

Umm… yeah, I think anybody who doesn’t watch Top Gear should start watching. It is so funny.

Prateek

Hmhm.

Rohit

Umm… they went to America this last weekend, and they were taste— like, testing American muscle cars. Like, according to them, like, American sports cars are not sports cars but, like, muscle cars.

And..umm… what is that called… umm..sss… aahh… forgot… the car makers say there’s one car maker. They were testing basically three cars — Cadillac, Corvette and the other one — Challenger, some Challenger, and the car maker, they denied to give them a demo car, ’cause like… (laughs) they bitch about them so much… hehe—

Prateek

Haha.

Rohit

—hehe …and … but they went, like, this guy, he went like dressed up and, completely different guy, and he went and, like, bought a Challenger, and then they raced with that. And then, like, they were saying, like… umm, they had visas to go to America saying that, you know, they make sensible documentary. Umm, but, umm the U.S. State Department suddenly decided that, umm, their show is not a documentary anymore, it’s an entertainment show. So what they did was they said, like, “OK, now we”, like, you know, “put our hands on our hearts and we pledge that it is going to be a factual, sensible documentary and not an entertainment show.”

Prateek

Hehe.

Rohit

And then every time they cracked a joke, they were about to start laughing and they kept quiet. HAHA!

Prateek

HAHAHA!

When did the new season begin though? I didn’t know—

Rohit

Last to last.

Prateek

—the new season had begun.

Rohit

Last to last.

Prateek

So this is Season 12, right?

Rohit

I don’t know what season it is, but the new season; I just started watching like when I got my, umm, you know, EyeTV, I started, like, by that time, like, I think…

Prateek

Ya, Season 12.

Rohit

…the season was almost about to end, so I — I almost watched like all the re–runs, and like, now this is the new season that has begun like last to last Sunday, so only two episodes has happened.

Prateek

Ya, ya, ya. So this is Season 12. I, I’ve watched Season, whole of Season 11, and… now I’ll see Season 12 as well now that you’ve told me …

Rohit

Like, it is so funny, like — haha — every time they’re cracking a joke, they’re, you know, they’re about to start laughing but they keep quiet and they’re like, “This is a sensible show. We’re taking facts—”

Prateek

I know. It’s a hilariously hilarious show. Like, I — I re–watched, I mean, umm… found out from online, like, I came across this thing that Lewis Hamilton appeared on a Top Gear episode so I re–watched that one. That was Season, a Season 10 episode, I re–watched that one. That was also really cool.

And then I saw some old episodes that Rakesh told me, like, where they test out a, like, umm… I think it was a Toyota, like, truck kinda thing, which, like, is said to be a very hard car, like, you know, it can withstand almost anything. So they do all sorts of stuff, like, first they just bang it against a tree and all, then they like, umm …

Rohit

Um, yeah. They have it. They have that car in the studio. It’s called Toyota “something”. It’s a pickup. It’s a, like a pickup truck.

Prateek

Ya ya, that’s what I’m saying. Then they, like, tie it to the shore, the sea and they let it, like, be there in the high tide and all and it gets like, totally submerged in the sand. Then they finally, like, put it on top of a building which is going to be demolished. Then they… they do like all sorts of absolutely …

Rohit

That’s the [unintelligible] truck they have in their, umm…

Prateek

— yup, yup, studio.

Rohit

… studio. They claim that they, err, it is still drivable. Like they can still—

Prateek

Ya ya I know — in that episode you sh.. see that it is, it does still drive. The last time they try in the episode is the demolition building one.

Rohit

Yeah…

Prateek

So, [chuckle] I’ve seen some of those, yeah, really classic ones.

Rohit

I just think that it’s so funny. Their sense of humour is so good. And…

Prateek

Sometimes I’m, like, surprised. How do they manage to, like, pull it off every episode? Like…

Rohit

…yeah. Because I think it’s very instinctive. All their jokes are very instinctive. Like even though—

Prateek

That’s why it’s so amazing, because I’m sure it’s not scripted, you know, like…

Rohit

No no no…

Prateek

If it’s scripted then, like, the—

Rohit

… part of it is, part of it is. You can see it from, especially Jeremy’s face. Like, he makes a very sarcastic face when he knows that he’s about to s.., you know, do something that is scripted. Like, you know, suddenly like, say, they…

Prateek

— they’ll have like story–lines and stuff, but, like, some moments you know, that, you know that, that happened just the way. They hadn’t planned that.

Rohit

Ya ya ya, I know, I know.

Prateek

But, all those moments are almost always funny, you know, not the other way round. So…

Rohit

I know. It..it…

Prateek

Like — like, especially with the interviews and stuff. Like the Lewis Hamilton interview, right, umm…umm before, I mean, in that episode, umm, the star–in–a–reasonably–priced–car thing, it was James Blunt who they invited, right.

Rohit

Ya.

Prateek

So, umm, I think the first or the second thing, like, umm.. Jeremy said is that, umm, “Your songs are like, supposed to be gay”, or something like that, ya. So then James Blunt says, “Yeah, I sang them for you!” HaHa.

Rohit

HaHaha. I know, even the stars make it so funny. And then that they — what was the other one — yeah, like, you know when they introduce, like, The Stig, like, they’ll say, “Some say…” and then go on …

Prateek

Yeah. Hehe.

Rohit

They — hehe — like, this episode, he’s like… first thing something he said, which was also very funny, and the second thing he says, “Some say that if he would’ve won the F1 championship, he would’ve at least have one photograph without his dad behind him.”

Prateek

Hahahahaha.

Rohit

Hahahaha.

Prateek

Haha. But, the, the Lewis Hamilton episode, in that, umm, they said… okay, when they were saying… I don’t remember the first thing he said about The Stig, but the second thing he said, yeah. “Some say that when”, umm, “Stig, like, presses his brakes, brake lights on his buttocks go off”, you know, like he has brake lights on his buttocks. Hehehe…

Rohit

Haha. Haha …oh man this is just, it’s just so funny. God. Hehe.

Prateek

You know, like, umm, I read a little bit about Stig—like, the original Stig was umm, like, an ex Formula 1 driver. Like, he was The Stig for two years, then in his autobiography, he actually revealed that he was The Stig so he got fired and he got replaced by another stig.

Rohit

Heh.

But this Stig is good. I mean all the Stigs are good. I think this guy is actually a—

Prateek

There’ve, there’ve only been two Stigs. What, this, one was that guy who got fired and now it’s this guy.

Rohit

This Stig is umm, I think he is, like, some kind of, like, umm… car driver.

Prateek

Ya they always have, like, proper drivers, you know, professional drivers.

Rohit

Ya, like, I think he drives touring cars of something like that.

Prateek

Yeah, maybe.

Rohit

Umm, but it is good. And, especially the way; I think he acts very nice as well. Like, he acts like, you know, like a robot, like, doing nothing.

I don’t know if you’ve seen that episode about — hehe — when they take the boat, the cycle, the… you know, they’re racing across London. So, Jeremy’s on a boat, umm, James is on a…

Prateek

I’ve seen another racing across London, but not boat, cycle and thing.

Rohit

Yeah, this is—

Prateek

But ..

Rohit

— boat, cycle, and Jame—umm, sorry, Richard Hammond is on the cycle — a BMW, very.. carbon fibre cycle, which is very nice one. And then, umm, James May is in a huge Mercedes umm, some, you know, four–wheel drive thing, and then [chuckle] Stig is in a public transport. And—

Prateek

Hahaha ha.

Rohit

eHehehe — it is so funny, hehehe…

Prateek

Haha. Like, I saw this one episode—

Rohit

He goes into the metro with his helmet on. Hehehehe…

Prateek

Hahaha… ya… haha. I know! He always has his helmet on.

I, I saw this one episode, some old one, where Hammond and James May, like, they’re supposed to be building a car from scratch. Like, spare—from its parts, somewhere up in Scotland I think. If not Scotland definitely, right.. right at, right at, like, the north of UK. Umm, and, Stig is in that same model car, but like, built one. He’s driving from London, to that place.

So, the, like, there was a finish line in that city where these two guys were assembling that car, and obviously, like, whoever crossed that finish line first, like, these guys had to assemble that car and drive that car to the finish line, and, umm, Stig had to come all the way from London to that finish line, right.

So, they’re showing different stages of progress and things like that. Then [chuckle] like, in between they say, “.. but we discovered, The Stig, has a bladder too!” Haha. And then, they show, like—

Rohit

HeHe.

Prateek

—he stops at a petrol pump and he goes, again with his helmet on and everything.

Rohit

HeHe.

Prateek

And he’s standing in line to get to go to the loo, okay. Hehe. He’s standing in line with his helmet on — hehe — and then he goes, and when he comes out of the loo, there were, like, some video game, umm, machines; in that, then like, all of them were showing, like, the photo of the Stig! Stig! Stig! …

Rohit

Hehe… yeah. In…

Prateek

They do it really well.

Rohit

Really nice show. And they talk nice, ’lot about cars, and… nice!

As recorded over Skype, courtesy of Rashmi.
The first episode of Season 13 airs this Sunday (21st June).